Presto card problems makes GO Transit rider look like a cheat

On two occasions when her card was checked by GO security, she was wrongly accused of not paying the fare.

Imagine being called out in front dozens of GO Transit riders for sneaking onto a train without paying, when you know the fare was deducted from your Presto account.

Anyone would be embarrassed, and not just a little bit angry, to be wrongly accused of not paying the fare, which Gabriela Sierra says happened to her twice this month when her card was checked by GO security.

We’ve been reporting on Presto problems for several weeks, focusing on accounts that showed far less than the actual amount deposited in them, and poor customer service, which has prompted more than 60 complaints from readers.

Some of them are about functional issues with cards and readers, including instances like Sierra’s, where the card was tapped on a reader and the fare deducted from the Presto account, but there was no record of it when the card was checked for proof of payment.

Sierra emailed me Monday to say she rides the train every weekday from Port Credit to Union Station and back again, and uses a Presto card to pay.

“When I tapped the card at Union, it blipped as usual, the light turned green and showed the balance on my card,” confirming the fare was deducted, she said.

She got onto a train and was asked for proof of payment by a security officer, “and when she tried to read my card, it did the noise like I didn’t tap it!!

That has happened twice this month, and it’s so embarrassing and frustrating. I pay $200 a month to ride the GO train and this is so upsetting.”

She complained to Presto and GO, “and they have opened an inquiry. We’ll see if the provide me a solution. However, the stress and humiliation are not going away.

“Every person in the train looks at you like you are a criminal, when I paid every single trip!!”

Metrolinx, which operates GO and Presto, have told me that complaints are miniscule, compared to the number of people who use Presto cards, and that it is working hard to improve customer service.

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